April 18,2011
Today’s TIMES editorial: THE NEW REPUBLICAN LANDSCAPE “it is possible to see the full landscape of destruction that their policies would cause . . . . The Party is fully engaged in a project to dismantle the foundations of the New Deal and the Great Society. . . (Friday) House Republicans showed just how far their mainstream has been dragged to the right. They approved on strict party lines the most regressive social legislation in many decades . . . end the guarantee provided by Medicare and Medicaid to the elderly and the poor. . .cut food stamps . . . cut Pell grants for all 9.4 million student recipients . . . remove more than 100,000 low-income children from Head Start, and slash job-training programs for the unemployed.” The editorial notes the President observed the New Republican Landscape is not so much about reducing the deficit than “about changing the basic social compact in America.” This new political landscape obviously is a sharp movement to the right. No matter what our personal political stance might be, it can be observed that the electorate tends to gravitate near the mid-point of the political spectrum. Swings to the left then to the right. It can be predicted, I think, voters next year will move the current Republican Landscape back toward the middle, perhaps even somewhat leftward.
The Bartling Scholarship 